The United States Medicaid program was enacted in 1965 to provide a medical assistance program for individuals and families with low incomes. The Medicaid program comprises three main entities—the patients, the healthcare providers, and the agency administering the plan (i.e., the payer). The Medicaid program is financed through joint federal and state funding. The Medicaid program is administered by each state according to an approved state plan. The specifics of the Medicaid program differ from state to state. Differences may include covered healthcare procedures, allowable procedure costs, and patient eligibility criteria. The state administrators of the Medicaid program are required to have a Medicaid management information system (MMIS) that provides for mechanized and/or computerized Medicaid claims processing. Recently, the Medicaid information technology architecture (MITA) has been promulgated by the U.S. government to provide a blueprint and a set of standards that individual states are to follow in administering the Medicaid program and for developing the next generation MMIS.